“Election Day 2018 is almost upon us, and it is a sad fact that Americans don’t vote in healthy numbers — especially our younger citizens. Elections are not won simply on the policies and issues being debated. More often than not, they are won on voter turnout.” (more)

“Election Day is one time you shouldn’t scold your teenagers for cutting class. After all, walking out of school to vote or to support your friends’ constitutional right to do so is evidence they learned something in civics class, their grades notwithstanding. As the philosopher John Dewey wrote in his classic book Democracy and Education in 1903, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”” (more)

“Maine independent Sen. Angus King and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe are introducing the Constitution Education Is Valuable In Community Schools, or CIVICS, Act. They say the legislation would piggyback on the American History and Civics Education program, which created grants for schools and other organizations to improve the quality of American history and other subjects.” (more)

“”Leadership Perspectives on Public Education: The Gallup 2018 Survey of K-12 School District Superintendents” shows significant concern among district leaders in regard to preparing students to be engaged citizens, with 74% agreeing or strongly agreeing that doing so presents a challenge, compared to 50% last year.” (more)

“How do you teach kids to be active participants in government? Or to tell the difference between real news and fake news? In their last legislative sessions, 27 states considered bills or other proposals that aim to answer these questions. Many of those proposals are rooted in popular ideas about the best ways to teach civics, including when kids should start, what they should learn and how to apply those lessons. Here’s a look at some of those concepts.” (more)

“Fake news. Record-low voting turnout. Frequent and false claims from elected officials. Vitriol in many corners of political debate. These are symptoms we hear of all the time that our democracy is not so healthy. And those factors might be why many states are turning to the traditional — and obvious — place where people learn how government is supposed to work: schools. More than half of the states in their last legislative sessions — 27 to be exact — have considered bills or other proposals to expand the teaching of civics.” (more)